• The Seattle Times casts a well-deserved spotlight on the often-overlooked writing in Beasts! Book 1 and Book 2

• The Daily Blog's "10 for '08" includes Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Comic Book Resources, counting down the "Best 100 Comics of 2008," slots in Sublife Vol. 1 by John Pham at #72 and Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman at #70 (with #60-1 still TBA)

• The Beat presents the Metro's R. Sikoryak's Frank Miller's Archie

• The Stranger points out a recent in-strip visit to Seattle by Zippy the Pinhead

We have a new duo of downloads with which to decorate your desktop! Just click on the size below that matches your monitor resolution -- find more info (and lots more choices) on our downloads page.

The Lagoon by Lilli Carré
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Zippy: Welcome to Dingburg by Bill Griffith
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Zippy: Welcome to Dingburg
By Bill Griffith

This new Zippy collection is an unexpected departure from previous editions: most of the strips in this volume chronicle the strange history, people and social mores of Zippy’s hometown, “Dingburg,” the only city in the U.S. inhabited entirely by pinheads — well, aside from Washington, D.C., and certain sections of Newark.

Take a tour of Dingburg’s “Beatnik District,” experience the festive holiday season of “Nordisk,” meet Dingburg’s resident Cubist, watch as citizens capture Donald Trump’s wig in a raid on an Atlantic City casino, and find out (at last) exactly why Zippy and his fellow Dingburgers speak in non sequiturs (it’s the water).

Reader response to this new Dingburg “story thread” has been loud and approving, with many asking for directions to the fabled enclave, somewhere “17 miles west of Baltimore.” Detailed maps will be provided on the new book’s endpapers.

Dingburg’s own favorite comic strips are also on display. Marvel at the baffling success of “Fletcher & Tanya” and the Dingburg kids’ favorite online comic, “Unibrow Versus The Universe.”

Also in this isue: the revealing “Little Zippy” series, in which Zippy’s magical and very weird childhood is laid bare.

And, finally, Zippy and J. Edgar Hoover (remember him?) cavort in tutus and play with loaded guns. Welcome to Dingburg!

160-page b&w/color 8.5" x 9" softcover with wraparound foldout cover • $18.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

• In a video clip from The Late Show embedded on The Huffington Post, David Letterman likens Sarah Palin's vice-presidential campaign to a Zippy the Pinhead cartoon in an interview with Katie Couric

• Pol Culture presents a contrary opinion about Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 by the Hernandez Brothers

• Top Drawer: 10 Questions gets 10 answers from John Hankiewicz

A couple of things to watch out for in this set of photos and videos from Saturday night's Bill Griffith appearance and exhibit at our storefront: 1) the fan who gets her Zippy tattoo signed and hightails it out the door to the tattoo parlor down the street to have it inked in permanently; 2) our brand-new Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery canvas tote bags, available only at the store for the low price of $14.95. We love us a slideshow, and it's embedded above; click here if you can't see it and/or to view it in a new window, or click here to browse through images at your own speed.

If you follow us on Flickr, you saw this preview of the upcoming new Zippy the Pinhead book Welcome to Dingburg pop up a few days ago. If you don't... here it is! Click this link if the embedded slideshow doesn't appear above, and/or to open it in a new window. (And don't forget to join us and Bill Griffith at the book launch party/exhibit opening at our bookstore on Saturday night!)

YOW! Legendary Cartoonist Bill Griffith Book Signing and Zippy Art Exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle on November 8.

“Are we having fun yet?” We will be on Saturday, November 8 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, when Bill Griffith creator of the iconic Zippy the Pinhead comic strip character, makes a rare public appearance in the Northwest. Griffith will be on hand to sign his new Zippy collection Welcome to Dingburg, present an exhibition of original Zippy artwork, and give a brief slide talk. The public of all ages is invited to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle’s Georgetown district to welcome this extraordinary cartoonist.

Bill Griffith began his storied career in New York in 1969, publishing comics in the East Village Other. A year later he moved to San Francisco to join his colleagues in the Underground Comix movement. He collaborated with Art Spiegelman to launch Arcade, a quarterly anthology of alternative comics, and Young Lust, a parody of 1950s romance comic books. His signature character Zippy first appeared in 1970 in Real Pulp #1. In subsequent years, “Zippy the Pinhead” was syndicated and currently appears in hundreds of newspapers across the country. Griffith’s creation has entered the cultural lexicon with his sometimes oblique, sometimes pointed, commentary on American political and popular culture. Since 1993, Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books has collected “Zippy the Pinhead” strips in several periodical publications. The latest of these handsome volumes, Welcome to Dingburg, will make its debut at the event on November 8.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in the heart of Georgetown’s creative community, only minutes south of downtown Seattle - open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Bill Griffith’s appearance coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the neighborhood. A selection of imagery in a variety of formats is available for publication. For additional information contact Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics.

Listing Information

BILL GRIFFITH
Opening reception and book signing, Saturday, November 8, 6:00 – 9:00 PM.
Exhibition of original Zippy art continues through December 10.
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.) Seattle, WA 206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 – 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM
www.fantagraphics.com

(click to enlarge)

Bill Griffith turned in his spectacular cover to the upcoming WELCOME TO DINGBURG Zippy collection, which focuses heavily on Dingburg, the "city inhabited solely by pinheads." (Other than Washington D.C., of course.) The inside cover will feature a full-color fold-out map of Dingburg, and as a result the front cover is also a foldout and our man Bill knocked himself out on both. Enjoy your sneak peek at the original to the cover (we're keeping the map under wraps for now), and look for the book late this year.

This has been floating around the inter-tubes recently: a TV interview with Zippy the Pinhead creator Bill Griffith that ran on WFSB (channel 3, Hartford, CT) Eyewitness News on November 7, 2003. Dig that close-up camera work!